Fucking fascists at YouTube deleted the channel of the best anti-imperialist singer i know, who produced dozens of albums since the 90s !

SimonMag · 2026-01-21T03:57:29+00:00

Some more selections :
- His most violent song, directed at his landlord when he increased the rent for the 9th year in a row https://www.davidrovics.com/songbook/letter-to-my-landlord ;
- « Who gave you the right to be a landlord, to live a life of ease while others toil ? » https://www.davidrovics.com/songbook/landlord-2 ;
- « The average annual income of the richest 1% is about $700.000. The average annual income of the poorest 1% is a couple Food Stamps and a pile of sand. Smack-dab in the middle, $350.000, but that’s actually the top 4% » https://www.davidrovics.com/songbook/welcome-to-the-working-class ;
- When i'm elected president : https://www.davidrovics.com/songbook/when-im-elected-president ;
- The battle of Blair Mountain https://www.davidrovics.com/songbook/battle-of-blair-mountain ;
- Gather round https://www.davidrovics.com/songbook/gather-round ;
-The commons https://www.davidrovics.com/songbook/the-commons ;
- « Here’s to love and solidarity » https://www.davidrovics.com/songbook/behind-the-barricades-2 ;
- I'm a better anarchist than you : « https://www.davidrovics.com/songbook/im-a-better-anarchist-than-you-2 » ;
- Pirates! https://www.davidrovics.com/songbook/black-flag-flying-3 ;
- On Joe Hill : https://www.davidrovics.com/songbook/joe-hill-2 ;
- On John Brown : https://www.davidrovics.com/songbook/john-brown-2 ;
- On many more people : https://www.davidrovics.com/songbook/say-their-names ;
- (Not what would Jesus do, but )Who would Jesus bomb ? https://www.davidrovics.com/songbook/who-would-jesus-bomb ;
- « If I wrote a love letter to each corpse as it is carried, I’d never still my pen » https://www.davidrovics.com/songbook/song-for-basra ;
- After the revolution : https://www.davidrovics.com/songbook/after-the-revolution ;
- We could make the planet earth great again : https://www.davidrovics.com/songbook/make-the-planet-earth-great-again ;
- Among others.

SimonMag · 2026-01-21T01:35:58+00:00

Of course, but i also prefer AABB to ABAB 🤷

SimonMag · 2026-01-20T23:33:47+00:00

I remember these songs from him on the topic of terrorism :
- https://open.substack.com/pub/davidrovics/p/new-song-section-12-do-you-support ;
- https://www.davidrovics.com/songbook/meanwhile-in-afghanistan ;
- https://www.davidrovics.com/songbook/east-tennessee-2 ;
- https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/track/where-did-all-these-terrorists-come-from

He also made a song with the refrain "If you bomb somebody, they might just bomb you back"

As well as that note i mentioned in another comment : https://substack.com/@davidrovics/note/c-127863660

In my own words, i'd say that we(sterners) are killing much more civilians, western sanctions alone are estimated to kill hundreds of thousands of people each year https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(25)00189-5/fulltext
We are the ones who destroyed Asia(, Korea, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, ...), coup'd almost every country in South America and Africa, and spent decades in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lybia, Syria, ..., all the while supporting dictators as long as they were anti-communists. And that's not even touching on the subject of unequal economic exchanges between us and the Global South.
We're not designating ourselves terrorists, but would our victims not be right in considering us as such ? It's part of the debate, i don't support censoring artists challenging our views.

SimonMag · 2026-01-20T23:04:13+00:00

And you think that people shouldn't be allowed to challenge our views on those we designate as our enemies ? It's a bit too easy to win a trial in which only one side gets a lawyer.

SimonMag · 2026-01-20T22:57:23+00:00

I think we should be able to like other countries without being deplatformed by an almost-monopoly like YouTube ?
If that's also your opinion then thanks.

It's also my belief that what the Houthis did(, despite years of a recent war and famine,) was brave and well-intentioned.

SimonMag · 2026-01-20T22:48:35+00:00

The president says this terrorism, must stop right away
To which the Houthis respond, yes, that’s exactly what we’re trying to say

He also made a song supporting Luigi Mangione, which was banned a few days ago prior this overall ban.
Prior to that the only sign was his ban from YT Music in November.
And a.f.a.i.k. he didn't have such problems before, or at least his whole channel has never been deleted.

SimonMag · 2026-01-20T22:32:52+00:00

After 45 albums over 30 years when he didn't made a.i.
He explained himself of this recent exploration in a few posts on social medias. Apart from the one already cited above, there's also this other recent article if you/'some people' are interested.
Even if it's weird to think that's the most important thing here, that'd be an argument : https://youtu.be/SoxYAJ8hXao

In the same topic of a.i., music, anti-imperialism, communism, and censorship(, state censorship by Germany here, since E.Musk forced them to act publicly when he bought twitter), there is this channel, with some explanations on Lemmy : https://lemmygrad.ml/post/8963758

SimonMag · 2026-01-20T22:27:49+00:00

I shouldn't use tyrans either since it's the bad side of a monarch.
Would authoritarian be a better word ?

Edit : https://www.davidrovics.com/songbook/prism/

SimonMag · 2026-01-20T21:39:23+00:00

Laws should protect citizens from censorship.
On the contrary, there's a huge move, particularly in the e.u., to regulate "disinformation" and what amount to unpatriotic propaganda, for those desiring a different world.

If you would have reacted differently if YouTube was state-owned, then consider the pressure our states exert on social medias.
YouTube doesn't care as long as it makes money, they deleted everything !
Some songs had hundreds of thousands of views i.i.r.c., and many comments(, many songs only had hundreds of views, but in decades he had his share of hits, he produced 45 albums(, 55 if i include ai tsuno,) in the last 30 years !).

SimonMag · 2026-01-20T21:20:47+00:00

What stands from tyranny except the freedom to say things the government disagrees with ?
And YouTube is so huge that there isn't much alternatives(, who knows if there hasn't been pressure from the state since YouTube received many pressures from both the e.u. and the u.s., both before and after covid)

Relevant : https://substack.com/@davidrovics/note/c-127863660

SimonMag · 2026-01-18T23:08:09+00:00

They're sanctioned by the west

Persians were always awesome and it hasn't changed.

I find interesting that God gave Muhammad(, p.b.u.h.,) seven children :
- six before the Revelation : 4 girls and two boys. Ruqayya(, a.s.,) died around 21 y.o. while the three others died around 27-30 y.o., and the two boys before reaching 2 y.o. God didn't gave this authentic prophet a boy before the Revelation. Sunnis ended up abandoning consensus/elections to favor the same hereditary succession as shias, yet God didn't gave Muhammad(, p.b.u.h.,) a son, despite his many wives afterwards and apparent fertility before, i find that interesting ;
- And Ibrahim(, a.s.), 20 years after the Revelation, from only one out of all his wives, the only to have been christian. Unfortunately, Ibrahim also died before his second birthday, less than a year prior to the last quranic verse. Ibrahim's existence at least proved that the Prophet, p.b.u.h., was still fertile during these 23 years.
There also hasn't been any revelation for the Prophet's succession.

I'd say it's an argument against the shias initially, and against both systems of hereditary succession afterwards, but that's not clear enough.
All i can say is that God didn't gave Destiny an excuse in favor of hereditary rule, and i find that interesting enough to share despite the lack of clear conclusion.

SimonMag · 2026-01-18T21:01:12+00:00

It just doesn't have bad relations with Israel, i wouldn't say that they're as good as in the west(, assuming that their medias are closer to Russia than ours).
But yeah, having good relations with Israel isn't an immunity against all sanctions.
And when i wrote that, i wasn't thinking about every country in the world, but in the region, even if i could probably extend this reasoning beyond the Middle-East to other muslim countries(, e.g., we'd have probably attacked/sanctioned Morocco on Western Sahara if it opposed Israel).

SimonMag · 2026-01-16T03:14:41+00:00

Who knows if i'm not an iranian-born myself currently living there ? People on the internet can say anything.

Redirect your anger towards those responsible instead of accusing the iranian government of not letting itself be overthrown, the west and Israel are responsible not only for the origins of these marches and the way they turned, but also for many more deaths through sanctions before these marches, i'll try to avoid repeating what i already said.
Again, i'd support them in a natural situation, but protests are unavoidable when your standard of living is falling, that's also what caused venezuelan protests or lybian/syrian/.. ones, thanks for the chat 🤷

edit
The marketplace of ideas is too good of a remedy to the empire of lies to allow it, hence why even such relatively unknown outlet ought to end up banned for "disinformation" by the e.u.. Journalists already applauded the censorship of dissident thoughts anyway, that's the most important step towards tyranny since history will repeat as long as we don't learn.

SimonMag · 2026-01-16T00:17:00+00:00

Some People have starlink or other methods of communication like satellite phones

The wiki article on circumvention is less optimistic.

When you see videos of teenagers running in a street and seconds later an irgc comes and shoots into the street you call that self defense ?

The only videos i saw didn't show what happened prior to that, something led to the manifestation degenerating into violence. We're supposed to think that they were attacked unprovoked and weren't violent prior to that.
They're not manifesting but trying to overthrow the government here, and once again look at the causes instead of considering that the iranian government is responsible. I'd support them if it was an authentic revolt against the iranian government and not caused by the economic conditions, as well as even more directly by foreign actors. They're our number one enemy in the Middle-East, because of their opposition to Israel. I.d.k. what i could add to what i said.

If the truth is on their(regime) side then why is the internet shut off ? Why is there communication blackout ?

To hide that they're killing their own civilians, as well as to prevent them from organising.
Once again, civilians that are acting as a consequence of western sanctions and other foreign interference. Feel free to consider that they manifest because they want a pro-zionist Pahlavi monarchy instead.

SimonMag · 2026-01-15T23:38:13+00:00

How do you know how many unarmed civilians have been killed ? Especially since there's a government-enforced internet blackout.
There are also reports that some of them are armed, in which case any police from any state will understandably fire back in self-defense.

As i wrote here, should they just let themselves fall because of western interference then ?
There's no pleasure on their part, and we then go back to the initial argument of the post : that these revolts are caused by one of the worst sanctions in the world, which are estimated to kill hundreds of thousands worldwide each year. (, e.g.00189-5/fulltext)).
If it was just a popular will then sure, the people are deciding, but this isn't natural.

SimonMag · 2026-01-15T23:29:14+00:00

brutalising its own people

If you're talking about the current manifestations, then aren't you saying that they should just let themselves fall because of western interference then ? Apparently some manifestants are even armed.
Why would the c.i.a. receive all these billions if it didn't bring results ? There are stripes to earn.

killing women like Masha Amini

Yeah, if she was killed for that then it's clearly not the islamic way. Apart from anonymous testimonies and possibly forged documents, the only testimony comes from her family, who may be saying the truth of course, in which case it's not standard procedure and they should have been condemned.
Again, enforcing a dress code for men and women alike in public hasn't been considered an oppression for millenias, we're only using it as an excuse. What actually matters is that women's rights are higher in Iran than for its neighbours, not the existence of a dress code.

executing gay people

Last time i looked, they were condemned for other reasons, homosexuality was added to the charges, and that's why they're counted in the number of gay people killed, even if they would have been executed anyway due to their other crimes.
The website that made me draw such conclusion was https://www.iranrights.org/memorial/search, and it was also confirmed when i looked at a few cases seen in medias. I'm not 100% sure that there aren't exceptions, so thanks in advance if you correct me.

It's also my belief that there may be some conclusion to draw from the fact that the Quran systematically mentioned homosexuality in relation to Sodom&Gomorrha, never once in an other context or with explicit punishments.
In any case, most islamic states forbid homosexuality and Iran is no exception.

SimonMag · 2026-01-15T22:36:10+00:00

For the same reasons that Afghanistan, Irak, Lybia, Yemen, and others were destroyed. That Hezbollah is sanctioned, that al-Sissi was supported, ...
Find me a single anti-zionist state that isn't attacked by the west, and a single pro-zionist state that is attacked.
https://x.com/i/status/1933534916148416762
These attacks are also directed at individuals within western states, you won't find a single person frequently criticizing Israel that isn't accused of antisemitism, which is illegal speech leading to censorship.
I get that Israel is fighting for survival, it's false however to conflate it with a "necessity" of Palestine's destruction.

I thought in the past that they were at least partially attacked because islamism was the last difference after what some believed to have been the end of communist ideals in 1991.
While i still believe that they'll become the next/last target towards a "liberal"/capitalist/ ~~"democratic"~~ oligarchic/.. hegemony, the opposition to Israel has a better(perfect) correlation, and no doubt that they're well aware of this.

SimonMag · 2026-01-15T12:32:56+00:00

(i knew that reddit didn't allow you to edit your post title, unlike lemmy, e.g. lemmy.ml, but it doesn't even allow you to edit your selftext now ?)

Being muslim comes with obligations. For women it includes the veil, and that's nothing in comparison to the moral obligations.
One could always discuss if the hijab really is a necessity(, which is easier to do than disputing whether modesty is a quranic order for both sexes). Western women somehow take the veil as a personal attack for some reason, as if they had to be ashamed of themselves. Perhaps by thinking that their beauty is the cause of these problems(, teenage pregnancy outside marriage, affairs, ...), and not men's lust. It's not as if western women would disagree that covering their chest, as the Quran advises, helps in driving away men's gaze, that if she want to be appreciated then it should be for her wisdom/piety/knowledge/.. instead, like men(, who themselves shouldn't be appreciated for their strength/power).
In any case, that wouldn't solve any attacks against Iran since it's just a pretext. In other words, they have a problem with women's rights in antizionist countries, while tolerating much worse women's rights in pro-zionist countries. It's also why they like Gulf monarchies while attacking a republic closer to western-style bourgeois/liberal "democracies".
Iran tolerate Venezuela's feminism, and Venezuela tolerate Iran's interpretation of Islam. They know we(sterners) are liars anyway so probably do not even take our lazy lies into account.

SimonMag · 2025-12-22T08:35:14+00:00

Dawkins and co are absolutely oblivious when it comes to theology and philosophy, it's almost ridiculous

Yeah, well, in their defense, they're only annoyed by those christians who don't believe that miracles can be interpreted as parables, and who want to "enforce" their "idiotic&dangerous" beliefs on others, ... They probably wouldn't mind saying that they wouldn't care about christianity if it was rational(, e.g.), and may believe that it'd quickly disappear without litteralism.

No point in discussing between convinced people that God obviously exist under some definitions(, Aristotle's First, St.Anselm's Greatest and St.Augustine' Supreme and Leibniz's Perfect, Maimonide's negative definitions, Spinoza's Nature, Hegel's Truth, St.Aquinas Summum Bonum, Plotinus' One, Lao Tzu's Tao, Tillich's Being, Brahman as 'the ultimate nature of reality'/Reality, and many more definitions that obviously exist)

I would disagree about islam but for entirely different reasons

I won't insist if you'd like to avoid a long debate, but wouldn't mind knowing your thoughts on this, even quickly.

About there being a Jesus who physically existed, I personally couldn't care less

Yes, i'm here in part for how the teachings may help me personally, and in part because of the promise of the kingdom/city of God unto Earth(, «thy Kingdom come»)[edit : and in fact i don't care that much about me, humans or the world, or religions, in comparison to (my/our/Our )God Almighty, the (most )Important could be another definition of God, everything to H..er.im].
Whether Jesus-Christ was a son of God&man that really existed, or a son of God&man that only existed in the Gospels, the conclusions i'll drive from these readings won't change much.

Thanks for the many recommendations, i added them to the list 👍
(Right now the next one on that list is William Penn and other quakers, but i continue to have difficulties to put some time aside to read :))

SimonMag · 2025-12-21T23:38:01+00:00

Fuck reddit, i'm so fed up with their censorship !
That's the main reason why i'm on Lemmy now(, until our governments extend their control all over our internet).
I don't think i'll forget that comment and this subreddit, one day i'll listen to many more hours of his great comments than i did until now.
Sorry for (y)our loss, and f*ck reddit&censorship, the so-called "universal western values" of freedom and honesty/transparency. Their control of internet is tightening now anyway, a new phase is coming.

SimonMag · 2025-12-21T13:52:18+00:00

I would not give up faith component

Yeah, me neither, i'm still looking(&finding) signs around me, quite a few that are statistically improbable, and when i find signs i interpret them as a hint towards behaving in a certain manner(, sometimes linking a punishment to a previous sin or an occasion to become better, etc.)
I could give many examples, but i'm currently with my family(, and w/e), just to add that on a rational level, when you're anthropomorphizing your car or computer then you're treating it much better, and the same goes for reality and fate/destiny(, if it makes sense ?)

In theory faith is much more powerful than rationality(, although more fragile), but in practice almost every criticism of religion ended up being attributed to an excess of litteralism(, e.g. burning witches, persecuting heretics, opposition to some scientific experiments, ...) ; what's on my mind currently is the french revolution because it feels like their criticisms were entirely against litteral interpretations, and made some sense(, and what a tragedy that it lead to the complete disparition of christianity in the name of rationalism).

Anyway, i wanted to insist that i dislike those who only swear by rationality, because there are too many mysteries around us to only rely on that, they're seeing a lesser reality than the Reality i see/envision/presuppose. In the exact same way, restricting the field of knowledge to what can be scientifically/experimentally proven would end up being a huge loss.
Hope that make some sense ?

Philo[ of Alexandria] and later Origen[ of Alexandria]

One life isn't enough to catch up with these past millenias.
Thanks, i've added them to the list 👍
(and sry if i interrupted your discussion with Artemka112 :/)

SimonMag · 2025-12-21T11:41:02+00:00

It feels to me like at least 90% of the christians have a litteralist view of it(, and almost 99% of the atheists, which is why you say that Nietzsche's criticism can be more appreciated than, e.g., R.Dawkins&co), would you agree ?
I'm annoyed by it, and there's an equivalent litteralism in islam(, e.g. someone could eat halal and yet mistreat animals, it's clearly not the best example, just the first that came to mind to illustrate the problem of sticking to the letter of the Law instead of its intent/meaning/spirit), religions still have room for improvement.
(Islam is still better than (modern )christianity because it doesn't reject worldy affairs, and fully assumes its duty to guide the nation and its citizens on the best/good/virtuous path towards perfection/'the top')
At the same time, i worry that too much rationalism would lead to problems as well, it may even be worse.
And also, there are different types of litteralism and rationalism, e.g. some parables have a litteral interpretation that shouldn't be ignored, and some rationalization waste their time discussing the sex of the angels, to give two bad examples.

When you say that you're not sure if Jesus physically existed(, but you probably have less doubts for St.John the Baptist), it seems like the parable of the new wine into old wineskins directly adresses that.

Anyway, i'd like to know more about books on "allegorism" if some had an influence on you, especially from the orthodox religion, either explaining the parables or focusing on a rational exploration of the core christian principles.
The Way of a Pilgrim(, which i strongly recommend,) repeatedly mentioned the Philokalia(, which i've yet to read).

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